Least Reliable American Car

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:48:28 -0700, "WoodBee" wrote: Please don't feed the troll.

Why's he a troll? He's pointing out mainstream news evaluations about the latest Saturns. Those reports may not be the final word on the subject (and in fact I hope they're not), but they're certainly worthy of being addressed.

I subscribe to CR on-line so I thought I mosey on down there and see what they say since Forbes is using their info.

"Saturn's first minivan is among the GM minivans that have been in production since 1997. As with the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, and Pontiac Montana SV6, the Relay is powered by a coarse 3.5-liter V6 engine. A

3.9-liter V6 is optional. We found the ride stiff and noisy, the handling reluctant, and the fit and finish insubstantial. The second-row seats can be folded and removed, but they are heavy. The third-row seat folds flat on top of the floor rather than into a well under the floor. This is basically an outdated and uncompetitive minivan. First-year reliability is much worse than average. IIHS side-crash test results are Poor without the optional side air bags and Marginal with them."

- Consumer Reports

If you delve into the details of the reliability ratings:

Engine - Excellent Cooling - Excellent Transmission - Excellent Drive System - Excellent Fuel - Good Ignitiion - Excellent Electrical - Poor AC - Very Good Suspension - Good Brakes - Good Exhaust - Excellent Paint/Trim/Rust - Poor Body Integrity - Poor Power equipment - Poor Body hardware - Fair Used Car Verdicts - Poor

Really sounds like a poorly made body with excellent power plant. Maybe not great, but doesn't sound that bad either. Most major components come out well.

Crash and rollover tests: Gov't front-crash test, driver: - Excellent Gov't front-crash test, front passenger: - Excellent Gov't side-crash test, driver - Very Good Gov't side-crash test, rear passenger - Excellent Gov't rollover test, 2WD - Good Gov't rollover test, 4WDNA - NA IIHS offset crash testGood - Good IIHS side crash test, with side air bags - Marginal IIHS side crash test, without side air bags - Poor

With the exception of side impact, safety is good.

So, all I can say is CR has very high standards indeed. Of course they slagged the SL2 and here I am still driving the car I bought in Noevmber,

1995.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I don't own a Relay.)

Good point.

I wrote off NEW Saturn's as not being American anymore because of their low percentage of American made components. It seems that this latest negative press, still promotes them at AMERICAN cars. So in this case bad press might actually create more buyer loyality.

later,

tom @

I noticed this also. I'm sure the question of "what is American?" is much-discussed with no final resolution, since a number of "foreign" cars seem more "American" than many "American" cars are. I was drawn to Saturn in the first place when I saw that Detroit finally built a reliable car with good mileage. And I guess there's still some truth to that, but it now seems to be relatively less reliable (although the standards have gone up, so it may still be decent in absolute terms) with lower mileage and more foreign components. So there's a sense of a diminished essential appeal, even if it's still an okay car at an okay price. Maybe that's just a touchy-feely perception. Then again, the three Saturn dealers closest to me have folded up their tents and disappeared in the last year.

Actually I heard the FED has responded. I was told, that for a product to be labeled as a "domestic car" it must contain atleast 75% American Made Parts, and I think the Assembly must take place in the US.

So the term American Car might be meaning less like "lite beer", doesn't mean anything really.

tom